A Week To Win Your Heart
by RingosGarden
Summary: Abby visits Gibbs when he's retired in Mexico in hopes to get him back.
1. Chapter 1

**Day One Abby**

"I know I have it," I mutter to the bus driver. This is absurd. I don't know what I was thinking when I asked the director for a weeks vacation time. There is little to no chance that I can get Gibbs to come back with me. But I need him. And I think he needs me. Or us.

"Here it is!" I say with a smile, pulling my passport out of my carryon bag. The driver looks it over and nods, handing it back to me. I tuck it back into my bag before climbing onto the bus, taking a window seat near the back of the bus. I had taken a flight from D.C. to San Antonio and had decided to take a bus from the terminal instead of booking another flight. It'll be about a two hour ride down to Baja Mexico where I'll find Gibbs.

It had taken me a few days to find out where Gibbs was in Mexico, but once I found it, I told the director that I needed a week off for vacation time before I exploded. I am actually surprised at how quickly she said yes, but I've never taken time off before, so she really had no reason to say no. The fact that she didn't question me though, well I can't say that I understand that. She had agreed with a small smile on her lips, I had hugged everyone goodbye and immediately booked my flight.

The bus pulls out and I take a deep breath, taking a last look at the terminal before smiling and taking the postcards I had bought at the airport out from my bag on the floor. Each one had a cheesy picture of Texas, sombreros and rodeos on the front. Tony had said that he expected a postcard for each day I was gone, and I'm not planning on letting him down.

I bend down again to grab a pen, catching eyes with a young girl sitting across the isle from me. I send her a smile and she sends me one back.

"Hi," she says. "My name is Michelle."

"I'm Abby," I tell her and I can tell that her mother isn't too pleased that I've spoken back to her daughter. I'm used to it though. I'm not exactly the picture of a normal and nice woman. "On vacation?"

"Yup!"

"Me too," I say with a smile. The girl's mother has turned back to her book, deciding that I'm not going to murder her daughter.

"Where are you from?"

The girl is certainly not shy, but I don't mind. I love talking and conversations with children I enjoy possibly the most. They don't judge; they're only curious. Young, naïve and trusting. It's something that you don't usually find anywhere near NCIS.

"Washington D.C.," I reply.

"Like the president?" she asks, her young green eyes wide in amazement.

"That's the place," I tell her as her mother bends down to say something quietly to her daughter. The little girl nods and picks up a Gameboy DS from a small bag at her feet.

I smile once more before turning back to my postcards. I had bought one for Tony, Ziva, McGee, Ducky and Palmer in order to give me something to do on the bus ride. If that failed, I had brought my laptop as a last resort.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

I grab my luggage from under the bus and thank the driver as I throw it on my shoulders. I had managed to pack everything I brought into a camping backpack and my carryon. I plan on staying on the beach so it wasn't really necessary fro me to take more other than the sleeping bag strapped on at the bottom of the backpack.

Looking around the small village, the bus pulls away behind me leaving me stranded here. My plan was to use everyday of my vacation time attempting to get Gibbs back to NCIS and if I couldn't do it in seven days then I'd let if rest and come to terms with his retirement.

My watch tells me that it's 5:00 D.C. time so it's 4:00 here. I take a deep breath of hot dry air and start walking towards the sound of music.

The bar is everything I expect from a beachside bar. Open to the ocean and crowded with local people.

A man walks towards me, looking me up and down before saying something in Spanish to me. I can typically decipher Spanish when spoken slowly, but I have no clue what this guy just said to me.

"Umm," I say slowly. "Lo siento…no habla mucho espanol?"

To my relief a short pretty woman cutes in front of me and says something to the man that makes him walk away and sit back at the table he had come from.

"Thanks," I tell her.

"Can I get you something?" she asks me before walking behind the bar.

I look at her for a moment before nodding and asking for a Corona. She hands one to me with a lime and takes in my attire. "What are you really here for?" she asks.

"Don't I look like a local?" I ask her with a smile before downing most of my beer.

"Not quite."

"I'm looking for a man," I tell her slowly. "Tall, built, gorgeous blue eyes and salt and pepper hair."

"You mean Mr. Gibbs?"

"Yes! That's him!" I exclaim. "You know where I can find him?"

She smiles at me and points towards the beach at a small cottage right on the sand. "He's there with Mike Franks."

I nod at her and finish the rest of my beer, handing her a five dollar bill. It isn't until she's put it in the register do I even consider that she might not take American.

"Thank you," I tell her before walking out of the bar and towards the cottage. I stop to take off my boots as they hit the soft sand and walk the next fifty yards to the cottage barefooted.

Mike is asleep on the porch, half a Corona resting on his stomach. I look towards the roof where someone is hammering and take my bag off, resting it against the wall of the cottage.

"Since you're awake, want to throw me up a beer-"

We stare at each other a for a few moments in silence. It looks like Gibbs hasn't shaved in weeks and his hair is the longest that I have ever seen it.

"Hey," I say dumbly, not sure what else to say.

He continues to stare at me for a few more moments before shaking himself out of it and slowly climbing down the ladder. As soon as he is facing me, I run into his arms, throwing my own arm around his neck.

"What are you doing here?" he asks.

I don't reply at first, keeping my arms tight around him and breathing in his scent.

He pulls away from me and rests his hands on my shoulders. "Abby?"

"I need you," I tell him. "We all need you. It's not the same at work without you. I mean, Tony's great but he's not you, Gibbs…I took a week vacation as soon as I found out where you were and I thought that I would come down here and try to get you to come back with me and if you didn't after a week well… I'd say goodbye and that's that."

He sighs and removes his right hand from my shoulder to wipe a tear away from my face that I didn't know I had shed. "I'm retired, Abby."

"Not officially," I tell him. "Not yet."

"I'm not coming back, Abby," he tells me softly. "I made a decision and I'm staying with it."

I take a step backwards so his hand drops from my shoulder to his side. "I'm here for a week Gibbs," I tell him sternly. "And you're either coming back with me or we'll never see each other again because if I leave here and you don't come back with me…well I never want to see you again."

I can't quite read the expression on his face and before he can reply, Mike wakes with a jump, the clattering of his bottle on the porch causing me to jump.

"Abby!" he says in surprise. "Jethro didn't tell me you were coming," he says looking to Gibbs.

"He didn't know," I reply walking around Gibbs to give Mike a hug. I had gotten pretty close to Mike when Gibbs had lost his memory. He's abrasive but not a bad guy.

Mike gives me a smirk as if he knows something I don't after I've pulled away from him. "Where are you staying?" he asks.

I gesture to my backpack. "Beach," I reply.

"I won't hear of that," Mike replies. "At least take my couch. There's all sorts of people walking around here at night. It's a nice neighborhood, but even the nicest neighborhood has its scum."

"Thank you," I tell him, chancing a look to Gibbs. "I'll think about it."

Mike smiles at me and walks inside. When I turn back to Gibbs he's shaking his head. "It won't work, Abby," he tells me before climbing back up the ladder to the roof.

Ignoring his statement, I smirk. "Still want that beer?" I ask, dangling it between two fingers.

To my pleasure he smiles at me and shakes his head, picking up his hammer and getting back to the roof.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello to my wonderful reviewers! Thank you so much for your kind words, and please keep them coming. This is my first multi-chapter NCIS fic, so I'd really like to hear all of your opinions :-)**

**~Tay**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o  
**

**Day One Gibbs**

I hear the clatter of something being dropped on the porch and call out to Mike. "Since you're awake, want to throw me up a beer-"

I stare at Abby. To say that I hadn't expected to see her face would be a drastic understatement. She was pissed at me and hurt when I had left. When I had leaned down to place a kiss on her cheek she was already crying. She had looked like she was torn between running away from me and wanting to smack me. But she just stood there. I had turned my back on her before I could shed any tears of my own. Saying bye to NCIS was possibly the most difficult decision that I have ever made and looking into her hurt eyes nearly made me stay.

"Hey," she says awkwardly, shrugging her shoulders a bit. I nearly don't register that it is actually her that is standing below me and have to shake myself back to reality before climbing slowly down the ladder.

As soon as I turn around she has wrapped herself around me. I close my eyes for a moment and breathe in her familiar scent before asking the question that I already know the answer to. "What are you doing here?" I know that the only reason that she would be here is to try to convince me to come back, but Abby can be surprising, so I ask it anyway.

When she doesn't reply I pull out of her grip, resting my hands on her shoulders so she has to look in my eyes. I nearly regret it when I see how full of emotion her eyes are. Her face is an open book. "Abby?"

Nearly instantly a rush of words come streaming out of her mouth. All of them about exactly what I knew they would be about; her wanting me to come back to NCIS.

"…I thought that I would come down here and try to get you to come back with me and if you didn't after a week well… I'd say goodbye and that's that."

I'm surprised that she even wants to see me now. Abby's pretty good about hiding her emotions to anyone but me. But I've always been able to read her, whether she likes it or now. It might be that she's never quite felt the need to hide her emotions from me, but even around others, I can read her.

I have to breathe in deeply to control my voice. I wipe a tear from her face before speaking. "I'm retired, Abby."

I can tell that she had expected me response because she quickly shakes her head at me. "Not officially," she counters. "Not yet."

She's right. Jenny has refused to file my retirement papers until my personal leave entirely runs out. If I've calculated correctly, I still have about two weeks of personal leave left and then Jenny will be forced to file for my retirement.

"I'm not coming back, Abby," I tell her as softly as I can. "I made a decision and I'm staying with it."

Her eyes narrow at me, and I can tell that she's not going to be pushed away as easily as I had hoped this to be. As soon as I saw her I should have realized that. She's traveled to Mexico to try to get me back at NCIS and a ten minute conversation won't send her away.

She steps away from me so that I am no longer touching her before she says anything. "I'm here for a week Gibbs," she says forcefully. "And you're either coming back with me or we'll never see each other again because if I leave here and you don't come back with me…well I never want to see you again."

Her words hurt me more than I would have liked them to, but Abby and I have always been close. I care deeply about her and walking away from her was one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I don't like getting close to people just for such reasons. Either way, someone in the relationship gets hurt; growing apart or even death. It's hard to handle and I tend to handle it by ignoring it. Abby doesn't let me ignore it. She doesn't let me ignore her.

Luckily, I am saved from responding by Mike waking up.

I watch their exchange carefully as she walks around me to give him a tight hug. When I had regained my memory, Mike had told me how much he liked Abby. I hadn't realized how close they must have gotten. He offers her his couch to sleep on and then walks inside, leaving the two of us alone again.

Abby looks at me and I shake my head at her. "It won't work, Abby," I say, not quite sure that I believe myself. I turn back to the cottage and climb back up on the roof, getting ready to finish repairing it for rain.

"Still want that beer?" she calls up to me, dangling it between two of her fingers. I can't stop myself from smiling at her. I don't think that she believes me either.

Picking my hammer back up I look back down at her as she sits down at the table, opening the beer she had just been taunting me with. I grab a nail and shingle and continue patching where I had left off. Mike joins her in a few minutes and every shingle or so I glance at the two of them.

I reach behind me for a new stack of shingles and raise an eyebrow at where Mike is sitting alone and Abby is no where to be seen.

"Bathroom," he says, shaking his head, correctly reading my look. "You have yourself quite the admirer."

"Remember what you told me about your personal life?" I ask him rhetorically.

"Stay out of it?"

"Yeah," I reply, hammering down a nail.

He starts laughing. "I don't think so, probie. That girl just spent the entire day trying to get to you. If you just let her back out of your life…well I'm not going to let you forget it. What do you say you get down here and help me grill up some dinner?"

I look towards the setting sun and collect the box of shingles and nails behind me, placing the hammer at the top before climbing back down the ladder just as Abby walks back out of the cottage in pajama shorts and a tight tank top.

She smiles at me when she catches me looking at her body. In the shape that she's in, and the type of clothing that she wears, it's hard not to notice her body. "Happen to have any tofu?" she asks me with a smirk.

"Not a chance," Mike replies. "But plenty of vegetables."

"Need any help?" Abby asks him, looking towards the grill.

"Nah, you just relax."

With a glance to me, she turns away from Mike and walks off the porch onto the beach. As she stretches her arms above her head, I catch a glimpse of the large cross tattoo that covers her back. I have no idea just how many more tattoos she has, but I have no reason to question that the cross isn't the most magnificent.

I turn to Mike after he smacks me in the back of the head. "Hurrah, Gunny," he says in a low voice, "don't let her go."

Looking back to Abby as she tests the water with her toes, I nod at Mike, not completely positive what I'm agreeing to. I need retirement. At least I thought I needed it. Maybe I just wanted it.

To say I haven't thought about being back at NCIS would be a lie. Hardly a moment has gone by since I've been in Mexico that I haven't imagined being back at headquarters or splitting up an argument between Tony or Ziva, or making a teasing comment to McGee, or sneaking up on Abby in the lab.

Maybe I just needed a vacation.


End file.
